Yoo-hoo! Gov. Blagojevich!

November 04, 2006

The days are dwindling, Gov. Blagojevich. You owe the people of Illinois answers to seven questions that already have been posed here three times. Yet you don't come clean. In fact, you don't say much beyond your slander of a woman who, after all your attack ads, stands taller than you.

Governor, these questions are not going away. Nor are the FBI agents and Department of Justice prosecutors who are unraveling your fundraising machine and your patronage hiring.

Honest answers to these questions will tell voters whether they should trust you to provide honest services--trust you to put their interests ahead of your own. Answers to these questions will tell voters whether they're right, or wrong, to conclude that you knew about the alleged crimes that now bedevil your administration in federal indictments and plea deals.

We can appreciate your temptation to slide through these final days, pray that you've brainwashed enough voters into dishonoring Judy Baar Topinka, and wake up Wednesday with your job and your influence intact.

That's not a long-term strategy, Governor.

Stuart Levine pleaded guilty last week to scheming to extort millions of dollars from firms that sought state business. Levine's plea agreement alleges that your two top fundraisers--the guys who bankrolled your attack ads--connived almost from the start of your governorship to corruptly exploit their clout. The earlier indictment of your pal and benefactor Antoin "Tony" Rezko, like the plea agreement Levine embraced, alleges many more crimes that haven't yet been formally charged.

Put short: The Rezko indictment and the Levine plea agreement describe plots by which your friends allegedly tried to use their power--their proximity to you, really--to control state boards and profit from state decisions.

You say you knew nothing about any crimes. Fine. But you do know the answer to each of these seven questions. They're not complicated. They go to the heart of how you have functioned as governor. We hope reporters on the campaign trail are asking you these questions, too:

- The feds say Rezko had clout with "certain state of Illinois officials" to influence appointments to state boards. Who are the officials?

- In the early Blagojevich years, who in the governor's office--other than the governor himself, of course--had the authority to suggest formal appointments to state boards whose decisions had huge financial impact?

- Did any staff member ever express concern, Governor, that Rezko was exerting influence over your appointment process?

- Who, if the indictment is correct, preserved a scheme to steer decisions on teachers' pension system investments by derailing a proposed consolidation of that fund with two others?

- Was anyone in the governor's office aware of the alleged plot to extort $1.5 million in political contributions from an investment firm?

- What do the Rezko indictment and the Levine plea agreement say about your 2002 campaign pledge to end "business as usual" in Illinois if you became governor?